President Biden leaves the White House on Jan. 19, 2023 to travel to California to view damage caused by recent storms.

President Biden leaves the White House on Jan. 19, 2023 to travel to California to view damage caused by recent storms. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Coronavirus Roundup: Two Years of the Biden Administration

There's a lot to keep track of. Here’s this week's list of news updates and stories you may have missed.

Friday marks two years since President Biden was inaugurated and a new phase of the pandemic response began. 

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, put out a statement on Friday morning celebrating the economic agenda under the Biden administration to recover from the pandemic. “To safely put Americans back to work, we had to rapidly develop and deploy vaccines, increase testing access, and reopen our schools and businesses,” said Deese. “Two years later, COVID deaths are down over 80%. Vaccines, treatments like Paxlovid, and testing are ubiquitously available; and our schools and businesses are open again. We are far better positioned to deal with surges and new variants than before.” 

In a “by the numbers” piece on Biden’s first two years, the Associated Press said the story is “a mixed bag.” In terms of COVID-19, 666 million vaccines, which weren’t approved until late in the Trump administration, were administered; 15.9% of Americans ages five and older have gotten the updated, bivalent shot; and 680,000 people have died from the coronavirus during Biden’s term. Here are some of the other recent headlines you might have missed. 

On Tuesday the Biden administration released its first-ever National Strategy to Advance Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities, which builds on previous work from the administration, such as to combat anti-Asian violence that increased dramatically during the pandemic. The strategy includes individual plans from 32 agencies

The lack of permanent leadership at the National Institute of Health and its sub-agency National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could create issues now in a new era of divided government, Roll Call reported on Thursday. The president has yet to nominate a permanent replacement for NIH director of the National Institute of Health, more than a year after Dr. Francis Collins stepped down and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s departure in December. The former is a Senate confirmed position, but the other is not. 

“Lawrence Tabak has served as acting NIH director since Collins departed, while Fauci’s deputy, Hugh Auchincloss — the father of Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass. — stepped in after Fauci retired,” said the report. “Both scientists have years of experience at the NIH, but Congress watchers and industry stakeholders say a permanent NIH head could smooth agency relations with Congress.” House Republicans, now in the majority, plan to take on a slew of investigations related to the federal government’s response to the pandemic and COVID-19 origins. 

The Health and Human Services Department could improve its oversight of research involving potential pandemic pathogens, which is often referred to as “gain of function” research and has come under intense strain during the pandemic, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. “In 2017, HHS developed an oversight policy that requires funding agencies to refer proposed research that is ‘reasonably anticipated to create, transfer, or use enhanced potential pandemic pathogens’ to the department for an additional review of associated risks and benefits, among other things,” said the report. “However, until HHS works with its funding agencies to develop and document a standard for ‘reasonably anticipated,’ the framework allows for subjective and potentially inconsistent interpretations of the criteria for referral, potentially leaving HHS without the assurance that funding agencies are referring all the research proposals that should be referred for departmental review.” HHS also “faces oversight gaps beyond the framework.” In its response, HHS neither agreed nor disagreed with two of GAO’s recommendations and agreed with the third. 

This report “may fuel” Republicans investigations into this type of research that they’ve already expressed disturbance over, as Politico reported

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and was experiencing mild symptoms. “Chair Powell is up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters,” said a statement from the Federal Reserve. “Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, he is working remotely while isolating at home.”

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court affirmed a 36 -month prison sentence for a man who pleaded defrauding a COVID relief program to obtain $85,000, which he used to buy a Pokémon card. “[Vinath] Oudomsine contends that his sentence is substantively unreasonable because the court gave undue weight to the need for deterrence factor without providing a compelling deterrence rationale,” said the ruling. “He claims the real reason the court varied upward was that it did not like him, and the reason it didn’t was that of the $85,000 he obtained by fraud he spent $57,789 to buy a single Pokémon card. We are not persuaded.” 

Help us understand the situation better. Are you a federal employee, contractor or military member with information, concerns, etc. about how your agency is handling the coronavirus? Email us at newstips@govexec.com.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.